Comparative Contract Law British and American Perspectives

Bringing together leading commercial and contract law scholars from the United Kingdom and United States, Comparative Contract Law: British and American Perspectives offers an insightful and comprehensive assessment of the commonalities and divergences in the contract law of these two jurisdictions. Approaching the subject area from a variety of perspectives - doctrinal analysis, behavioral analysis, law and economics, and theoretical - the book examines familiar areas of contract law as practiced in the UK and US. Topics include contract theory and structure; contract formation and defects of consent; policing contracts and the duty of good faith; contract interpretation; damages; speciality contracts; and legal reform.

The volume provides a thorough assessment of the current state of commercial contract law in the UK and US, and addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the national and European approaches to many issues of contract law. In particular it focuses on how commercial contract law should be improved, and whether harmonization of the different contract law regimes is a suitable, and appropriate, solution.

Larry DiMatteo, Huber Hurst Professor of Contract Law and Legal Studies, University of Florida,Martin Hogg, Professor of the Law of Obligations, University of Edinburgh

Larry A. DiMatteo is the Huber Hurst Professor at Warrington College of Business Administration, University of Florida. He received his J.D. from the Cornell Law School, his LLM from Harvard Law School, and his PhD from Monash University. He is the former Chair of the Department of Management at the University of Florida and Editor-in-Chief of the American Business Law Journal.

Martin Hogg is Professor of the Law of Obligations at the University of Edinburgh Law School, where he is currently serving as its Deputy Head. He is the Editor of the Edinburgh Law Review. Professor Hogg has researched and published extensively in all aspects of the law of obligations.

1. Introduction: American, Anglo and Scottish Contract Law, Martin Hogg and Larry A. DiMatteo
Part I: Contract Theory and Structure
2. The Death of Consent?, Peter Alces
3. Saying With Me Mean: Fundamental Structure Language in Contract Law, Martin Hogg
4. The Nature and Timing of Contract Formation, Shawn J. Bayern
5. Contract Formation Between Distant Parties: The Scottish Experience, Hector L. MacQueen
6. Quality of Consent and Distributive Fairness: A Comparative Perspective, Jeffrey L. Harrison
Part II: Policing of Contracts
8. Inequality of Bargaining Power and 'Cure' by Information Provision, Elizabeth Macdonald
9. Reassessing Assent-Based Critiques: Adhesion Contracts, Daniel D. Barnhizer
10. Good Faith in the Performance of a Contract in English Law, Ewan McKendrick
11. History and Theory of Good Faith Performance in the United States, Steven J. Burton
Part III: Interpretation
12. Interpreting Commercial Contracts: The Policing Role of Context in English Law, Catherine E. Mitchell
13. Contractual Interpretation in the Commercial Context, Black D. Morant
14. Can Judges Use Business Common Sense in Interpreting Contracts?, Lord Hodge
Part IV: Damages
15. Market Damages and the Invisible Hand, David Campbell
16. The Rights to Perfrom After Repudiation and Recover the Contract Price in Anglo-American Law, Mark P. Gergen
Part V: Specialty Contracts
17. Three Sales Laws and the Common Law of Contracts, Larry A. DiMatteo
18. Defining Agency and its Scope, Deborah DeMott
19. Defining Agency and its Scope, Laura Macgregor
Part VI: Legal Reform
20. Standard Terms in Consumer Contracts: The Challenges of Law Reform in English Law, Christan Twigg-Flessner
21. At the Limits of Adjudication: Standard Terms in Consumer Contracts, Aditi Bagchi